MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid is apologizing (once again) for inflammatory posts unearthed from her now-defunct blog, the Reid Report.
No, not those. These are new ones.
Among other things in these latest posts, BuzzFeed reports, Reid described Israel as a “Zionist regime,” suggested that the U.S. government was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and posted a photo with the head of Sen. John McCain photoshopped onto an image of Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, captioned, “Baghdad John Strikes Again.”
Reid also reportedly asserted that American citizens forced to evacuate during Hurricane Katrina should be the ones who rebuild New Orleans, not “low paid Mexican workers, legal and illegal.” In addition, she wrote that she believed that Mexicans did not migrate to the U.S. because of some romanticized “Statue of Libertyesque truism,” but because they needed money to send back to Mexico.
Reid’s most recent apology reads as follows, according to BuzzFeed:
While I published my blog, starting in 2005, I wrote thousands of posts in real time on the issues of the day. There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed. Today I’m sincerely apologizing again.
I’m sorry for the collateral damage and pain this is causing individuals and communities caught in the crossfire.
To be clear, I have the highest respect for Sen. McCain as a public servant and patriot and wish him and his family the best. I have reached out to Meghan McCain and will continue to do so. She is a former on-air colleague and I feel deeply for her and her family.
I’ve also spoken openly about my evolution on many issues and know that I’m a better person today than I was over a decade ago. I am the daughter of immigrants and have worked to be a strong ally of these communities. There is no question in my mind that Al Qaeda perpetrated the 9/11 attacks or about Israel’s right to its sovereignty.
I believe the totality of my work attests to my ideals and I continue to grow every day.
Reid has been apologizing since the first homophobic and transphobic blog posts were exposed in December 2017. Unfortunately for her, similar posts came to light in April. Reid blamed the posts on a shadowy hacker—a claim she eventually abandoned because the cybersecurity expert she hired could not prove that a hacking occurred. She then apologized again for her previously bigoted views, while still insisting that she didn’t remember writing some of the posts.
MSNBC responded Friday after the latest blog discoveries.
“Some of the things written by Joy on her old blog are obviously hateful and hurtful,” the network said, BuzzFeed reports. “They are not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years. Joy has apologized publicly and privately and said she has grown and evolved in the many years since, and we know this to be true.”